I find most remarkable in it is the place wherein he commanded the two Coffins for his Father and himself to be placed because the same could never by any industry be found out the inner part of the Vault or Cave being made in the fashion of a Labyrinth And History informs us that Herod being on a time obstinately resolved to find out this secret place commanded some of his Men to break down certain stones whose removal he thought might likely discover the concealed Royal Tombs but was soon affrighted from attempting further by the fire that issued forth in great flashes from it and consumed two of his Men upon the spot so that besides a rigorous Edict he published whereby he strictly enjoyned that for time to come none should dare to attempt a like re search he caused a very mean Sepulchre to be made hard by it for himself by way of reparation of the wrong he had offer'd to it NEITHER shall I speak here of the great Treasures found in those Sepulchres for none can be ignorant of the vast Riches of all kinds that were laid up therein who considers that those Places being lookt upon as sacred and inviolable among the Jews every one of them carried thither the most rare and precious things they had thinking them more safe there without Guards than in their own Houses or Coffers They were most commonly Lords and Persons of great Estates who did so as finding it too cumbersome for them to keep their Treasures at home by reason of their great Riches as likewise Widows and Orphans who were not capable of looking after and managing what was their own BUT besides those riches which were kept there for the use of the Living much was also enclosed in honour of the Dead Hence it was that the High Priest Hyrcanus seeing himself besieged within the City of Jerusalem by Antiochus Sirnamed Pious took out of David's Sepulchre nine hundred Years after his Death three thousand Talents whereof he gave a part to that Prince to make him retire with his Army and with the other he raised Souldiers in order to put himself in a condition of preventing the like disaster for time to come Out of which Sepulchre Herod a good while after took a great number of Vessels of Gold Jewels and other precious Ornaments From whence we may easily conclude that his Son Solomon had spared nothing to honour his Father's Memory In like manner we read in the Fourteenth Chapter of the Second Book of the Kings that the Chaldeans did in their Invasion of Judea open all the Princes Sepulchres for the sake of the Treasures they enclosed And Sozomene tells us that the Prophet Zachariah's Tomb being opened in his days a young Prince of the Royal Blood was found lying at his Feet with a Crown of Gold upon his Head and array'd in a most rich Robe and other Princely habiliments THERE are two principal Objections that may be made concerning these Funeral Ceremonies of the Jews which we shall here briefly endeavour to answer The first is How it comes to pass that so great honours were by them paid to the Dead since according to the Mosaick Law none could touch them without being polluted insomuch that those who took care of their Burial could have no fellowship with any till after they had washed and purified themselves To this all the Interpreters do unanimously answer that Moses his intent was not thereby to signifie that dead Bodies were abominable in themselves but that bearing the blemishes and stains of sin by their being deprived of life they were to purifie themselves who had touched them as if they had touched sin it self Death being its proper and natural effect and reward THE other Objection may be made concerning the honour of burning so often mentioned in the Scripture from whence some infer that the Dead amongst the Jews were sometimes consumed in the Fire but without any sufficient ground or reason for it nothing as hath been said being more contrary to the Custome of that People Wherefore we answer that those burnings mentioned in Scripture were quite of another nature and must not be understood of Corpses but of sweet-scented Woods and Perfumes which they consumed to a vast expence at the Funerals of their Kings and other Persons of the highest Quality CHAP. XVI Funerals of the Modern Jews IN the description I am about to make of the Funeral Rites of the Modern Jews I might be thought to amuse the Reader with an idle story but that they are well known to be authorized by the Talmud which next to the Holy Scripture is the Book of most esteem amongst them and daily practised by all those of that miserable Sect who live in these our days Nevertheless I must here advertise the Reader that though indeed that which I relate be not a Fable it being their constant belief and practice yet I shall have occasion to set down many things here that seem the most extravagant stories imaginable which for all that are the ground and foundation of these their Ceremonies BUT here we must needs observe some kind of order to clear a matter that is of it self very obscure and intricate by reason of a great number of punctilio's thereto belonging which they account very essential Therefore we shall first of all speak of their preparation for Death when they are Sick Next of their Death it self with their Funerals And last of all of their foolish Opinion concerning the Souls and Bodies after Death FIRST then As soon as a Jew is given over by the Physicians and they conclude he will die the Rabbi who has been called to take care of his Soul comes to him in company with ten other persons at the least and in the first place asks him whether he believes the Coming of the Messias whereto the Sick having answered in the affirmative he sits down at his beds head and the standers-by ranking themselves round about him he bids the Patient to make his Confession with a loud voice the Form whereof is as followeth I CONFESS and acknowledge before thee O Lord my God the God of my Fathers the strong and mighty God of every Spirit that quickens and gives life to Flesh That both my Life and Death are in thy hands therefore I pray thee to restore me to health to remember me and hear my prayers as thou didst those of King Hezekiah when he was sick But if this be the time of thy last visitation upon me and that I must die I beseech thee mercifully to receive me into that Paradise which thou hast prepared for the Just Shew me the streight way to go to Eternal Life and satisfie me with thy blessed presence Praised be thou for ever O Lord God who hearest the Prayers of thy Servants THIS Confession is accompanied with a publick Declaration of his sins though it be not so particular but that he may
was accounted so sacred amongst them that the Athenians condemn'd several great Captains to death because they had cast the Bodies of some that were kill'd in a Sea-fight into the Sea Upon this score it was that their General Nicias caus'd his whole Army to make a halt till they had interr'd two private Souldiers who died in the march And the Illustrious Cimon son of Miltiades made no difficulty to give himself up a prisoner into the hands of his Fathers Creditors who had after his Death seised his Corps to deprive it of the honour of Burial 'T IS matter of wonder that Burying the Dead having been for some time in so great veneration amongst them they should all on a sudden abolish that custom and instead thereof commit their Corps to the devouring flames For it was they who invented that hideous ceremony of Wood-piles and were the first that turn'd those into Ashes after their Death whom they had during their lives most dearly beloved This we learn from Lucian who laughs at that custom and Homer in many places of his Iliads abundantly confirms it who to give us a perfect Idea of those Ceremonies sets down very particularly the Honours that were done to the body of Patroclus Telling us that Achilles having order'd the whole Army to be ranged in battel-array round about the Wood-pile caus'd twelve young Gentlemen Trojans to have their heads cut off besides a vast number of Oxen Horses Sheep Dogs and other beasts which were butchered and their bodies confusedly laid about the Corps of his Friend and last of all he himself having cast his Hair which he had cut off with his own hand into the flames all was consum'd amidst the lamentable cries of the whole Army CHAP. III. Funerals of the Romans THE Romans having succeeded to the Grecians in the Empire of the World as they received from them many of their Laws and Manners so most of their Ceremonies But to the end we may not swerve from our Subject we shall only observe how they were Imitators of the Grecians in the disposing of their Dead for both of them at the first buried afterwards burned them and at last abhorring those horrid Solemnities they introduc'd again the custom of interring them Their History acquaints us that the former Burials lasted from Romulus who was the Founder of their City to the tyrannous Dictatorship of Sylla who having caus'd the Bones of his Enemy Marius to be digged out of his Grave and fearing that the like affront might be done to him after his Death he by an express Law made for that purpose and many pompous Ceremonies engaged the People to burn their Dead to ashes which were afterwards gathered and shut up in Urnes This Law was observ'd until the Empire of the Antonin's who being Philosophers and Virtuous Princes could not endure that this kind of cruelty should be any longer exercised upon Humane Bodies and therefore did abolish the use of Wood-piles and restor'd the former way of Burying WHEN the sick was at the point of Death his nearest Relation drew nigh unto him waiting till he gave the last gasp which he receiv'd with his open Mouth and then shut his Eyes provided he were not a Son of the Deceased for the Manian Law forbad Children to close their Father's eyes And the same Kinsman did open them again after that the Funeral Officers had done their duty that is to say after they had washt him well cloathed him with his own cloaths and laid him in the Tomb or on the Wood-pile Some say that the reason why they closed the Eyes of those who were a dying was that they might not see the affliction which they caus'd to the standers-by and that they open'd them in the Grave to the end they might behold the Beauty of Heaven which was the abode they wish'd them to all Eternity THE manner of accompanying the Corps of one of the common People to the Grave was very plain and simple but when the Person was of great Quality the pomp and state they used was very extraordinary The march usually began with a long row of the Statues of his Ancestors dressed in their Apparel and Robes of State viz. in Consular Robes if they had been rais'd to that Dignity in the Pretexta if they had commanded in the Army in Purple if they had been Censors or in Cloth of Gold if they had ever enjoyed the highest honours of Triumph After these Statues of his Ancestors followed his own with all the marks and signals of the Employments he had discharg'd or Honours he had obtained viz. Bundles of Rods Axes Garlands of Laurel or Oak and those Coronets which were called Muralis and Civica the former of which being given as a mark of honour to those who had first scal'd a Wall and entred the City the other to them who had preserved a City from the power of the Enemy or saved the Life of any Citizen And to all these they sometimes added the representations of the Cities or Provinces they had conquer'd Next came all his Domesticks in mourning and were followed by Musicians who plaid to a sad and doleful Tune the Instruments being diverse according to the age of the Persons for they made use of Pipes only for young People and of Trumpets for the ancient These Instruments went immediately before the Corps which was carried by the Vespillo's so call'd because they never buried the Dead but in the dusk of the Evening or at Night and was follow'd by a throng of the Relations and Friends of the deceased who had a company of young Boys and little Girls at the head of them the former of which had their heads cover'd with a black Vail and the latter went bare-headed with all their Hair spread about their Ears All these marched in great order through the care which was taken by the Designators or Masters of Ceremonies IN the beginning of their State they were wont after they had attended the Corps abroad to bring them into their Houses and there interred them from whence arose that great veneration they had for their Penates or Houshold-Gods which were nothing else but the Ghosts of those that belonged to their Family But this custom did not last very long not only because of the horror which the continual presence of the Dead caused to the Living but also by reason of the infection and ill scents arising from them Which gave occasion to a Law whereby it was enacted that thenceforth no Dead should be buried in the City much less kept in their Houses as they did before that Priviledge being only granted to Vestals to Emperors and those who had been Triumphators THE common place of Burial was the Via Flaminia or Latina that is the Flaminian or Latin Road Where as soon as they were arriv'd one of the Relations standing in the midst of the company who
made a ring about him pronounced the Funeral Oration in praise of the Deceas'd Afterwards they laid him in the Grave with an ever-burning Lamp and some small Vessels full of several sorts of Drink and Meats not forgetting to put in also a piece of money to pay Charon for wafting them over in his Ferry and some Woollen Garlands that they might with decency and honor appear in the Elysian Fields AS soon as the Grave was shut up the Weeping-women which they call'd Praeficae who had no other employment but to lament at Burials and were usually to that purpose hired for money cry'd aloud Ilicet that is Every one may now be gone Upon which the Company three several times answered with a mournful voice Vale Vale Vale giving the deceased Party their last Adieus and so withdrew THEIR Tombs were order'd and limited by the Laws the workmanship about them being expresly forbid to exceed what ten men might finish in three days time or five at the most neither were they suffered to be larger than was necessary for the engraving of an Epitaph It was upon this account that Licinius was declar'd an infamous Person for having caus'd a stately Sepulchre to be erected for him wherein he had much exceeded the aforesaid bounds At first the custom was to write their Epitaphs in Verse which never exceeded two Distichs But afterwards they found Prose to be the better way because it left them more at liberty not only to express the Name of the Deceas'd with that of his Family and Tribe but likewise the honourable Offices and Employments he had discharged his Profession and the Legacies he had bequeathed They began these Epitaphs by consecrating the Monuments they had erected to the Dii Manes that is the Ghosts or Spirits of the Dead or to the Infernal Deities and sometimes to Diana Hercules or any other Divinity for which they had a more particular devotion and ended the same with mentioning the Legacies the deceased had given by his last Will which consisted either in Feasts or summs of money to be distributed to the people and sometimes Oil Biskets and such like viands which the Executors were bound every year to perform at the Tomb of the Deceased the same day they died or else on their Birth-day NEITHER did they that out-lived them in acknowledgment of benefits received forget any thing that might conduce to the preserving of their memory For presently upon the Death of any person of quality they ordered his Statue to be made to the life which after it had graced his Funeral pomp was brought home set in a Niche and was used to be taken thence in case he had been a Magistrate upon days of great Solemnities to accompany the publick Processions and if he were a private person they adorn'd it in its Repository with Garlands and several other gallantries Moreover if he that was dead had done any considerable services to the Common-wealth then besides the Statue which his Relations kept of him in their houses there was another erected at the charge of the publick in some eminent Place of the City in order to its being exposed to the sight of all men This honour they gave to Scipio the African whose Statue they set up in Jupiter's Temple in the Capitol Whence it was that when his Posterity the Cornelii entered that Sacred Place to offer any Sacrifice they first approached his Statue and asked his advice as if he had been there alive Thus also the Statue of Cato was placed in the Senate-house and that of Trajan was fixed upon a Pillar As afterwards they erected such another Pillar on which they placed the Statue of Antonine who was an Emperor so generally belov'd that he was accounted infamous that had not in his house some Pourtraicture or Figure of him either in colours embossed Work or at least in Medal BESIDES these Statues they did in order to celebrate their memory institute combats of Gladiators which they did in imitation of the Grecians who appointed Games at Nemaea in honour of Archemorus and celebrated annual sports and exercises at Jolcos in Thessaly in honour of Acastus We read likewise in History that in memory of Sciron they decreed solemn Games which they called Isthmia from the place where they were celebrated Those Games were chiefly Tilting running at the Ring Wrestling Fencing besides combats and skirmishes both by Sea and Land AS to the time of Mourning it was either longer or shorter according to the Quality of the person though commonly it lasted not above nine days as appears by their Novendial or nine-day-Sacrifices which they offered to the Manes or Ghosts of the deceased Nevertheless the more scrupulous sort of people amongst them who were willing to observe religiously the Institutions of the Ancients did continue the mourning much longer By the Laws of Numa women were to lament the Death of their Husbands and Children their Parents a whole year that is according to the computation of those times the space of ten months But it was not lawful for Husbands to do the same at the Death of their Wives or Children when they dy'd before they were three years old but from three years to ten Parents were allowed to mourn for them as many months as they had lived years IT is also to be observed that their Mourning oftentimes was broke off before the time appointed by Law and that upon the account of publick as well as private occasions The publick were either the intervening of their Lustrum or Year of Expiation which was kept every five Years at which time a Tribute was levied and the City expiated by Sacrifices or for the performing of some solemn Vow made by the Generals of their Army as was that of Camillus for the taking of the City Veji that of Papirius upon his Expedition against the Samnites Of Marcellus for the Booty taken from the Carthaginians at Nola and such like Or because of the occurring Festival solemnities of the Goddess Ceres As upon this account it was that the Mourning begun for the slain in the bloudy Defeat at Cannae lasted but thirty days But yet it was only to Men that this was forbidden for as to Women they had leave to continue their mourning all the year round THE private causes were either the Birth of a Son or the arrival of some near Relations come out of prison or freed from bondage or else the marriage of a Daughter In all which occasions they ceased to mourn for the Dead that they might not deny such reasonable rejoycings to the living THE same Ceremonies before mentioned were used to those they Burned that is as to their attending the Funerals their Epitaphs and Mourning The difference was only in the manner of their Wood-piles These were made of very dry wood and very often of such as was aromatical and sweet-scented besides an abundance of Perfumes and odoriferous
of these Relicks which they often snatch'd by force out of the hands of his Kindred and Relations NEITHER was this Custom of drinking the ashes of their dead Physicians so peculiar to the Inhabitants of Panuco for I find that alike Ceremony was commonly us'd in the Countrey of Venessuela at the death of all manner of Persons whose Bodies they generally roasted cut them out into small pieces and then bray'd them till they came to the consistence of a thick Jelly which they dissolved in Wine and drank with great pleasure this being accounted the most delicious drink among them who fancied they could never make any splendid entertainment but when they had some of this high Cordial to render it compleat Whence it was that all the grief they had conceived from the death of their Relations was soon wash'd away by the delight they took in drinking the remainder of their Bodies THE Custom of the People of Florida seems somewhat more civil though full of superstition who keep the Bodies of all their dead Friends within their Houses fearing that if they should come to lose one of those Relicks only some great mischief or other would befal them Assoon as any one is dead among them they place his Corps near a great Fire turning it from time to time to the end it may be well dryed and when it is throughly dryed and the Flesh become stiff and hard they deck it the most gorgeously they can not sparing any thing that is costly or curious as Cloth of Gold Plumes of Feathers and precious Stones to set it forth and then enshrine it in a Niche or hollow made in the Wall for that purpose which they look upon as the greatest ornament of their Houses those being reckon'd the finest and most richly furnish'd that have the longest rows of these Mummies with which also they oft entertain several discourses recounting all that they know of the Deceased And so great a comfort is the presence of these Objects to them that it soon makes their mourning to cease for by having their Friends continually before their Eyes they can scarcely believe that they have lost 'em by Death ALMOST the same Custom is used among the inhabitants of Nova Granada specially towards the Bodies of their great Captains whose Mummies they carefully preserve carrying them along with them in all their warlike Expeditions as being perswaded that they can never be vanquish'd whilst they have those Relicks in their company and if they chance to be so unfortunate as to lose the day they attribute it to the injustice of their cause and with tears beg pardon of the Corps of their General for the shame they have exposed him to But when they prove victorious they offer many Sacrifices to him in acknowledgment of his aid and assistance AND not to pass by the account of the Burials of their Kings I shall only mention those of Mexico and Mechuacan which are the two most considerable and civilized Countries in all America that thereby I may give the Reader an Idea of their most magnificent Funeral Pomps and Obsequies And first of Mexico AS soon as their King was fallen sick they put a Mask upon the face of their principal Idol and did not take it off till he was either Dead or perfectly recovered If he Died they presently publish'd a solemn Mourning for him not only in the City but throughout the whole Kingdom to every part of which Expresses were sent to give notice thereof to the end that all manner of rejoycings might immediately cease Upon which notice given all the great Lords repaired to Court to attend his Funerals and in the mean time his Corps was well washed and embalmed Now when the Court was full and compleat and all the Grandees were met together in the Palace the Body of the Prince was taken out of his usual Bed to be laid open to the sight of all on a Straw-bed in the midst of the Hall And this sad object which drew tears from the Eyes of all the standers-by was in this manner exposed for the space of three days during which time it was not lawful for any Lord to absent himself from the place and to that purpose every one of them ordered their Necessaries to be brought thither to them by their Servants and Vassals nor did they take any rest but in their Chairs HAVING thus attended and watched him they put on his face the Vizard of the Idol for which he always had the greatest devotion they stopt his mouth with a large Emerald and covered him with seventeen very rich Carpets or Coverings upon each of which the name of the Idol in whose Temple he had chosen to be Buried was written Then they cut a handful of his Hair which they laid up as a precious Relick saying that the memory of his Soul remained in that Hair and sacrificed a Slave to him whose office it was during his Life to light his Lamps and burn his Perfumes that he might do him the same service in the other World THOUGH indeed this humane or rather inhumane Sacrifice was not solitary but was attended by an infinite number of others that were never a whit less cruel yet this was the first of all that was slaughter'd to the end he might go before and prepare all things for the reception of so great a Prince for they believ'd that his Soul did not depart this World till his Body was burnt and that whilst they were making preparation for his Funeral pomp it staid with the Body to observe if they punctually paid their duty-to it Upon which score they were careful not to omit the least circumstance thereof for fear of being punish'd for it upon the spot THIS first Sacrifice being over some of the chief Lords carried the Corps upon their shoulders having round about them a multitude of others who with feigned lamentations made a most dreadful noise for those that were appointed to weep were fain to do it though never so much against their heart unless they would incur the rigorous punishments that were by the Law ordain'd in that case insomuch as they thought themselves very happy who could escape this Office and to avoid all discontents and disputes on that account they before the Funeral March begun cast lots who should bear the Corps who should weep and which of them should carry his Arms and Presents ordained for him which last marched in great numbers at the head of the Company making a fine show of all sorts of Arms in use amongst them and those of the best that could be as Bucklers Darts Arrows Bows Clubs Colours Plumes of Feathers and a thousand other things no less beautiful and pleasing to the Eye than rich and precious IN this order they approached the Temple where at the entrance of the Yard or Court which compassed it they were receiv'd by the High Priest who with the whole
devoured the Bodies of their own Country-men as well as those of Foreigners when they were Dead So that what those fore-cited Historians do relate only of the Inhabitants of Pontus of the Massagetes Hyrcanians Derbices and several other Asiaticks we find confirmed in Europe to demonstrate that however barbarous this Custom seems to be yet it cannot well be doubted but that such there have been Nay their cruelty went further in respect of old people for as soon as they were come to seventy years of Age without staying for Death's call they rid them of the miseries of old Age by knocking them in the head or cutting their throats and then made a Feast of them and what was yet more horrid was that the Children only were thought fit to discharge this bloudy office being oblig'd by the Laws of the Land to take a Knife and murther their Parents themselves Neither were they wanting to defend and maintain this their extream inhumanity with many specious reasons and pretences For example they to justifie their impious murther alledged that Man's life after seventy years of Age being nothing else but a composition of pain and trouble they were in duty bound to free those from it who had brought them into the World that they might thereby prevent their miserable languishing and added that after their Death they could give them no higher expression of gratitude and duty than by feeding upon them because by that means their Parents became one and the same substance with them as they themselves were before they were born THE Parthians and Medes as likewise the Iberians and Inhabitants of the City Taxyla in the East Indies had such an horror and averseness for the corruption of the Dead and their being eaten by Worms that they exposed them in the open Fields to the end they might be there speedily devour'd by the wild Beasts accounting nothing more unworthy and unbeseeming the excellence of man than to rot and putrifie in the Earth and become the prey of such pitiful and loathsome Insects after his Death who while alive could not suffer so much as one of them about him Besides they believ'd that if he were devour'd by Beasts he would not be totally extinct and that being no more able to live in an humane Body he would at least enjoy a life in the bodies of those Animals that had fed upon him FOR this very purpose also the Bactrians fed Dogs which they call'd Canes Sepulchrales or Grave dogs and took a very particular care of them that after their Death their Souls might not want a healthful strong and lusty Body to reside in Oh unheard-of folly and madness thus to cherish those Creatures that were one day to tear and rend them with their teeth and what was more to make much of them only upon that account We naturally abhor an Hangman because his sole employment is to butcher Men how then may we think can those people look kindly on Creatures that are to be their own Executioners Or how can they with premeditated deliberation keep and feed them on purpose for this inhumane and barbarous piece of service Nevertheless most certain it is that they regarded this as a great point of their felicity For Cicero tells us that they made it no less their glory to feed those Dogs very high in order to make them grow fat and lusty than the Romans did to build sumptuous Tombs And S. Hierom adds that so great a veneration they had for this kind of Burial that Nicanor who by Alexander the Great was made Governour over them going about to suppress and abolish this inhumane custom of thers had like not only to have caused a revolt of the whole Province but also to have been by them massacred as an impious and sacrilegious person TO which we may add the Custom of the Barceans which seems no less extravagant who were of opinion that the most honourable Burial was to be devour'd by Vultures And that not only because those Birds by their long lives did represent Eternity but chiefly because they were consecrated to Mars and that Nature appears to have appointed them for that very use they being continually seen hovering about dead Bodies So that all persons of Worth and Quality that either died amongst them or fell in War fighting couragiously for their Country were immediately exposed in such places where Vultures might readily come at and make a prey of them As for the common people together with those that died on their Bed of a Natural death they were in a manner out of contempt flung into a Grave as not being esteemed worthy to have a Burial in the bellies of these sacred Birds THE Hyrcanians which I have above mentioned made some distinction between Men and Women for they did eat the former whereas they buried the latter as thinking them unworthy to have their bellies for their Graves Though methinks these above all deserved that honour supposing this barbarity might be so called since they had but done the like for them as having carried them nine months in their wombs CHAP. XI Fiery Sepulchres THE Grecians and Romans were not the only Nations that used to Burn their Dead the Germans and Gauls were also wont to do the like But we intend not to speak here of any except of those people which we account Barbarians because their Custom herein is much more cruel than that of the fore-mentioned The Reader then may please to know that some of them Burnt themselves casting themselves alive into the Fire others caus'd themselves to be stab'd before upon the Wood-pile and others were reduc'd to Ashes after their dead Bodies had lain a good while corrupting in the Fields amidst a huge heap of other stinking and rotten Carcasses THEY who were wont to Burn themselves were a certain Sect amongst the Indians who therein imitated their Doctors called Brachmans who by an extraordinary courage and fortitude or to speak more properly by a kind of madness and frenzy sought in the flames that Life of light which they preached to the people who seeing them thus desirous of Death and with so great joy thrust themselves into the Fire were soon won to this strange Doctrine and Opinion That there was no greater happiness attainable than that to which men were ushered-in through the flames THEY also believed that their participation of that felicity was different according to the more or less healthful condition they were in when they thus sacrificed themselves that is to say That they were the most happy and eternally enjoy'd a most pure light without the least mixture of darkness who burn'd themselves in their youth and the full vigour of their age whereas they that put it off till a further date did proportionably as they grew old and their strength diminish'd lose some degrees of those enjoyments that old people did only partake of a
be erected for her with a great Hall in the midst of it adorn'd with abundance of Figures and Statues all bespangled with precious stones After this he caused her Corps to be laid up in a frame of incorruptible wood fashioned into the likeness of a Cow which was covered all over with plates of Gold and a Purple-mantle cast over it The figure of this Cow was kneeling and had a Sun of massy gold between her horns and was enlightned by a Lamp whose flames were fed with a most odoriferous oil hanging before it and round about the Hall nothing was seen but perfuming pans and Censers which continually cast out clouds of sweet scents and perfumes BY these instances we may perceive what honours the Egyptians of old were used to confer upon their Dead and for conclusion of this Chapter I shall only further add that there were commonly three sorts of Buryings in use amongst them which were distinguished into sumptuous indifferent and mean or poor The charges of the first were a Talent of Silver and of the second twenty Mines the expences of the last being very inconsiderable CHAP. II. Funerals of the Grecians THE Grecians have not always disposed of their Dead the same way For at the first they used Burials and after that the custom of Burning prevailed amongst them Of both which ways we have several instances from very credible Authors Thucydides tells us that Themistocles being dead at Magnesia where he was Governour was buried in the great Pâ—lace of that City and that some time afterwards they took his bones from thence and carried them to Athens his own Country where they were interred a second time A like account he gives of Brasidas viz. That this brave General being dead of the wounds which he received in the Victory by him obtained over the Athenians at Eon was publickly carried by the Chief Officers of his Army upon their shoulders to the place where a Monument was prepar'd for him in the midst of the Great Market and that there they buried him He further acquaints us that some time after those of Antibe offer'd many Sacrifices at his Tomb instituted Games in honour of him and ranked him amongst the number of their Gods The same Thucydides informs us that they had a special care to pay all due honours to such as died in the Wars in defence of their own Country And to that purpose tells us that all those who were kill'd at the several Battels fought in Morea were most honourably buried in the manner as follows First for the space of three days they left their Bones in a Tent where every one of their friends made them Presents of what they liked most when they were yet alive Afterwards they laid them together with the foresaid gifts in Cyprus-Chests or Coffins and every Tribe having placed the bodies of those that belonged to them on Chariots they were drawn by men to the place of Burial being followed by an infinite number of Citizens who fill'd the air with lamentable wailing and out-cries Moreover the same Historian observes that besides those forementioned Coffins they carried some empty ones in honour of them whose Bones they could not find NEVERTHELESS they most commonly buried the Souldiers in the very same place where they had fought and were slain rendring them their last honours where they had purchased their greatest glory and employ'd one of the most honourable and eloquent of their Magistrates to make a Funeral Oration in commendation of them AS for those that died on their beds they were buried in the Suburbs It was their custom never to inter the Dead within their Cities because they considered them as cut off from the society of other men their Heroes only enjoying that priviledge whose Bodies they kept in publick Places as so many Tutelar Gods and Defenders of their Country Every Family had their own Tomb and he only was depriv'd of this right who had spent his Patrimony the Laws appointing him to be buried elsewhere THE same Laws ordered and restrained the manner of their Burials that they might not be too sumptuous and prodigal Demetrius Phalereus established a Magistrate to have an eye to the regulating of them and put a Fine upon those that exceeded such a summe The same Law-giver ordered that no other Monument should be erected over the place where the Corps was interred than a Pillar of three cubits height or an Urn of the same dimensions and that the face of the dead should be turned towards the East Nevertheless this custom was not alike observ'd throughout Greece for the inhabitants of Phoenicia laid the dead with their faces Westward and those of Megara buried them with their faces downwards and in this manner it was that Diogenes would be buried he giving this reason for it that seeing all things were according to his opinion to be turn'd upside down in succeeding Ages he by this means should at last be found with his face upwards and looking towards Heaven THEY likewise differed very much amongst themselves in the Honours they conferr'd on the Dead before they carried them to their Graves as also in the way and manner of their Mourning Some washed them with clean water and others with wine Some pour'd upon them a thousand sweet perfumes and others did only cover them with Olive-leaves Some clothed them in Crimson others in White with abundance of Garlands and others as the Galatians put a Letter very well seal'd into their hand that they might make known their intentions to them in the other World and that they had well acquitted themselves in performing their last duties to them THEIR Mourning lasted seventeen days And therefore they commonly cut off a finger from the Dead Body and on the same conferr'd all the Funeral honours they thought due to the Party Deceased In Lycia men during all that time wore women's cloaths At Argos they dress'd themselves in White and made great Banquets and offered many Sacrifices in honour of Apollo In the beginning of these Ceremonies they put out their fire and afterwards kindled it again At Delphos they sacrificed unto the Dead themselves At Delos they cut off their own hair and laid it on the Grave The Plateans did after many joyful meetings which lasted all the time of Mourning at last make a kind of Funeral pomp in which a Trumpeter marched first who was followed by some Chariots loaden with Bay and Myrtle-leaves and after these Chariots came several persons carrying bowls full of milk and wine which they pour'd out upon the Sepulchre The Lacedemonians crown'd themselves with Smallage and sung Hymns in praise of the Dead and the Athenians made great and solemn lamentations over them From all which customs it plainly appears that some rejoyced and others mourned at the Death of their Relations and Friends IN this point only they all agreed viz. in burying their Dead which Duty
Oils that were pour'd out upon it after the Corps was laid down thereon and a great many Presents brought by their Relations and Friends The Body was wrapt up in an Asbestin-cloth made of the stone call'd Amiantos which resists the force of Fire and so kept the Ashes of the Corps from being mixt with those of the Wood. The nearest kinsmen put fire to the Wood-pile turning their eyes from it and when all was consum'd they gathered up the Ashes themselves and put them in an Earthen-pot which they laid in a Tomb. AND to make this Discourse the more compleat we must not forget to insert amongst these funeral honours which were in some sort sufferable those which superstition did afterwards introduce by ranking them amongst the number of the Gods whom they themselves but a little before acknowledged to be but men and subject to all the infirmities of this life which Apotheoses or Deifying Ceremonies and Consecrations were by them chiefly conferred on their deceased Emperors AS soon as any one of these was Dead they caused his Image to be made of wax and dressed in his own Cloaths afterwards they laid it upon a Bed of State in the entrance of the Palace where all the Senators and great Ladies came to attend it some of them being clad in Mourning and others all in White but very plain and without the least ornament The Senators having taken their places on the left hand and the Ladies on the right they continued there the whole day without speaking one word and for the space of seven days ensuing they put on a very sad countenance During which time one of the most proper and handsom youths that could be found attended constantly at his Boulster to drive the Flies away with a Fan of Peacock-feathers His Physicians also visited him every day felt his Pulse still saying that he grew worse and worse and at last having declar'd him Dead all the Shops throughout the City were shut up immediately every one ceasing from his work and striving to out-vie one another in expressing their grief and sorrow At last several young Noblemen of the highest Quality took this Bed together with the Corps of the deceased Emperor on their shoulders and first carried it to the Place where they were used to elect their Magistrates Here they set it on a Throne which was erected in the midst the Senators taking their seats round about it and the Ladies having placed themselves in certain Galleries two Quires began a mournful concert whereof the one was composed of Boys and the other of Girls who sang by turns the Praises of the late Emperor from two scaffolds on each side of the Throne These concerts were followed with an eloquent Oration uttered by his Successor which after having been oft interrupted by the applause as well as lamentations of the Auditors ended at last in a general mourning accompanied with most doleful out-cries NO sooner was this noise over but the Funeral-pomp began to advance The first that set forth were those that carried the Statues of all the Great Men that had commanded in the City viz. of their Kings Dictators Consuls and Emperors These Statues were accompanied with the representations of plain imbossed work on Brass of all the Provinces and principal Cities subject to the Empire After these came several that bare Standards there being as many of them as there were different Provinces under the Roman Government AFTER all these illustrious marks of their Grandeur followed the several Companies of Tradesmen every one in their rank and order Then came the Archers and after them the Regiments of the Guards with their Trumpeters And in the rear of all came a Cavalcade consisting of young Noblemen and last of all many Chariots loaden with all the Ornaments Perfumes and precious things that were to be spent and consumed at the Funeral WHEN all this train was pass'd by the Priests and the Magistrates elect did again lift up the dead Body with the Bed of State on which it was laid and delivered the same to some Roman Knights who as soon as they had taken it up on their Shoulders the whole Company began their march out of the City towards the Field of Mars some of the Senators walking immediately before the Bed of State and others behind it In the midst of this Field there was a kind of Square Tower of Wood erected and on the top of it were four little Towers made Taper or Spire-wise every one of them less than the other and all of different heights and on the top of the second of these Towers they placed the Corps After which all the Persons of Quality having seated themselves upon several Scaffolds erected there for that purpose beheld the Tiltings and Races that were run about the Wood-pile the sight of which was very pleasant and delightful For besides the activity and nimbleness of those on Horse-back and the several exercises of Foot-men there were many Triumphal Chariots which they did drive with the greatest swiftness imaginable and then turned them about in their full career At length these Games which they called Pyrrhica being ended the new Emperor attended by the chief Magistrates came down from his Scaffold and all of them having with their Torches set this wooden Tower on fire an Eagle flew out of the top of it which was the mark of the Divinity of the Deceased For they did perswade themselves that this Eagle carried his Soul into Heaven there to take his place amongst the Gods And from that time forwards they gave him the compellation of Divus which signifies a Demy-God they dedicated Temples and Altars consecrated Priests and ordained Sacrifices in honour of him THE Apotheosis of Empresses was the same in all circumstances except that instead of an Eagle a Peacock was made use of to mount their Souls to Heaven as we learn from the Medals of Livia Maximina Faustina Paulina and several others with this word on the backside of them Consecratio which is the same with Apotheosis or Canonization NEITHER were the Emperors only ranked amongst the Gods but private Persons also as History acquaints us have had the same Honours done to them And without speaking of the two Gracchi to whom the People dedicated a Temple because they had lost their lives in their Service don't we read that the Emperor Adrian did the same to that beautiful Antinous whom he so extravagantly lov'd For he did not content himself to confer on him the honour of being Canonized after his Death but he also built a City which he called by his Name thereby to immortalize his Memory NOW a word or two must be spoken of the Ceremonies used at the Burial of the Vestals In how great esteem and veneration these Virgins to whose care the keeping of the Sacred Fire was committed were amongst the Romans is well known For they not only render'd them the highest marks
of honour they could possibly express whenever they chanced to meet with any of them in the Streets but also gave them the first places in all Assemblies both in their Temples and Theatres They had always a Gentleman-Usher going before them yea so great deference was given to their presence that if they accidentally met with a Criminal led to the place of Execution he could not then be put to Death this happy encounter procuring the poor wretch his Pardon THERE was also the greatest care imaginable taken in the choice of them They never consecrated any to this high charge but from Six Years of Age to Ten. Moreover they were to be without any blemish neither stammering deaf crooked lame nor maimed Their Parents also were to be free having never been bound in any sort of Servitude or imploy'd in base and mean Offices for their Father was to have been either a Priest Augur or Epulo The Girl who had all these advantages was by her Relations conducted to the Porch of the Temple of Vesta where she was received by the High Priest who consecrated her for the space of thirty Years to the service of that Goddess during which time she was to keep her Virginity inviolable Men were not suffer'd to speak with them except in the Day-time and very severe punishments were decreed against those who entred their Lodgings by Night WHEN they happened to Decease in this state of Virginity they were not only Buried with great Pomp but had also the peculiar priviledge allowed them as well as Heroes of having their Tombs within the City BUT on the contrary when any of them was found guilty of breaking her Vow by incontinency and whoredom as it was look'd upon as one of the greatest misfortunes that could befall the City so was she likewise severely punisht for it by the most shameful Burial in the World They laid her all at length on a Bier as if she had been Dead cover'd all over with many Cloaths which were tied fast and close about her that she might be neither seen nor heard And being thus swadled about she was carried from the Temple of Vesta to the Gate call'd Collina attended by her Relations and Friends all in tears after them came the Priests with sad and dejected looks without speaking one word Hard by this Gate within the Walls there was a little hillock and underneath it a very deep Cave which served for a Grave to the unchast Vestals As soon as they were arriv'd at this place the poor wretch was loosed of her Swadling-cloaths and nothing left her save a great Vail which cover'd her Head and Face that she could not be seen Then she was taken down from the Bier and the High Priest having mutter'd a few words with his back towards her she was taken by the Executioner and let down by a Ladder to the bottom of this Grot or Cave where was set ready for her a Bed a burning Lamp and a little Bread with three Pots full of Water Milk and Oyl and having stopt the hole there they let her perish without any pity for it was not lawful for them to shed their blood And so solemn was the Mourning on these Days that none durst either work or divert themselves neither was any thing to be heard throughout the whole City but sighing cries and lamentations CHAP. IV. Funerals of the Persians IT is matter of astonishment considering the Persians have ever had the renown of being one of the most civilized Nations in the world that notwithstanding they should have used such barbarous customs about the Dead as are set down in the Writings of some Historians and the rather because at this day there are still to be seen among them those remains of Antiquity which do fully satisfie us that their Tombs have been very magnificent And yet nevertheless if we will give credit to Procopius and Agathias the Persians were never wont to bury their Dead Bodies so far were they from bestowing any Funeral Honours upon them But as these Authors tell us they exposed them stark naked in the open fields which is the greatest shame our Laws do allot to the most infamous Criminals by laying them open to the view of all upon the high ways Yea in their opinion it was a great unhappiness if either Birds or Beasts did not devour their Carcases and they commonly made an estimate of the Felicity of these poor Bodies according as they were sooner or later made a prey of Concerning these they resolved that they must needs have been very bad indeed since even the Beasts themselves would not touch them which caused an extream sorrow to their Relations they taking it for an ill boding to their Family and an infallible presage of some great misfortune hanging over their heads for they perswaded themselves that the Souls which inhabited those Bodies being dragg'd into Hell would not fail to come and trouble them and that being always accompanied with the Devils their Tormentors they would certainly give them a great deal of disturbance AND on the contrary when these Corpses were presently devoured their joy was very great they enlarged themselves in praises of the Deceased every one esteemed them undoubtedly happy and came to congratulate their relations on that account For as they believed assuredly that they were entered into the Elysian Fields so they were perswaded that they would procure the same bliss to all those of their Family THEY also took a great delight to see Skeletons and Bones scatered up and down in the fields whereas we can scarcely endure to see those of Horses and Dogs used so And these remains of Humane Bodies the sight whereof gives us so much horror that we presently bury them out of our sight whenever we find them elsewhere than in Charnel-houses or Church-yards were the occasion of their greatest joy because they concluded from thence the happiness of those that had been devoured wishing after their Death to meet with the like good luck THE same Historians inform us that when any private Souldier was sick in their Armies and in outward appearance past recovery they carried him to the next Wood or Forest leaving with him only a piece of Bread a little Water and a Stick that he might as long as he should have any strength defend himself from the wild Beasts which most commonly devour'd these poor wretches and if it chanced that any one of them escaped and came back to his own house all the people ran away from him as if they had seen some Ghost or Devil and did not suffer him to converse with any body till after he had been purified and expiated by the Priests as if having been so near Death he were thereby according to their opinion become unfit to live any longer for they supposed that he must needs have had great converse with Daemons since notwithstanding his extream sickness he had been
of Meats to the Grave which they distribute to those that pass by that they may mourn with them and do hire Weeping-women to make this Ceremony the more doleful AS to their way of Burying it is no less singular They wash the Corps and shave all its Hair off Then they wrap it in a Linnen-cloth which they have besprinkled with Soap-suds and afterwards with Rose-water and thus lay it down stretched out at length in a Coffin which they expose to the view of all comers in the Entry of their House not lying on its Back or Belly but on its right side with the Face turned to the South as if looking towards Mecha a City which they have a great veneration for it being the Native Place of their Prophet This Coffin is cover'd with a Canopy of divers Colours according to the different Rank or Quality of the Person If it be for a Souldier it is red if for a Priest green and if the Party was neither of these then they make use of a black covering IT is likewise to be observ'd that when they wrap their Dead in a Winding-sheet they let their Feet Heads be at liberty that they may the better and with the more ease kneel down when the Angels come to examine them leaving them a lock or tuft of Hair on the top of their Heads that the Angels who make them kneel whilst they interrogate them may by that Lock lay hold of them For they are of opinion that as soon as the Dead is in the Grave his Soul comes into his Body again and that two Angels in a dismal horrid and frightful shape presenting themselves to him ask him these Questions Who is thy God What is thy Religion Who is thy Prophet To which he ought to answer thus My God is the true God My Religion is the true Religion and my Prophet is MAHVMET This is the only answer that can secure him at this pinch and the very same as they say which all those who have liv'd well do return to the Angels Now as soon as he hath given this answer a lovely Creature is brought to him which are his good Deeds and remains with him to comfort and delight him until Doom's Day when they shall both enter into Paradise BUT if the dead Person know himself guilty he is so possest with fear that he cannot give so just and satisfactory an Answer and thereupon is presently severely punish'd for those black Angels as they say strike him with a fiery Club and that with such violence that the fierceness of the stroak makes the ground to sink under him where he is so extremely press'd and squeezed that all the Milk he hath suck'd from his Nurse runs out through his Nose After all this comes to him an ugly Creature which is nothing else but his evil actions and abides with him to torment him until the Day of Judgment when both of them are to be cast into Hell there to endure greater Punishments Wherefore to the end the deceased may be delivered from these Black Angels their Friends that come to weep and lament at their Graves do encourage them crying continually with a loud voice Be not afraid but answer boldly ANOTHER distinction no less ridiculous than this do they make between good and wicked Persons They say that at the day of Doom Mahumet shall come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat to see whether JESVS CHRIST shall judge Men in Righteousness and that after Judgment past he shall be chang'd into a white Sheep in whose Fleece all the Turks shall be hidden as so many small worms and that those who shall fall off at his shaking of himself shall be damn'd but that such as shall stick close to him shall be sav'd because he 'l carry them along with him into Paradise AS for what concerns their manner of accompanying the Corps to the Grave it is very plain and simple They carry it out of the House the Head foremost the Priests go before it singing Hymns or Prayers and the Relations and Friends follow after bitterly wailing and lamenting At their return they feast the Priests and reward them with a Piece of Money if the Party deceas'd was rich but if he were poor they go through the Streets and other publick Places and beg of the People what 's due to them on this account AS for great Personages they differently make choice of their Sepulchres according to their various inclinations and fancies Some of 'em cause themselves to be buried in curious and pleasant Gardens planted with abundance of Trees and embellished with Flowers which Gardens they encompass about with strong Walls that no Beasts may enter them walk over their Graves or annoy and defile them with their dung this seeming an insufferable thing to them even after their death as if they supposed themselves to be sensible in their Graves Besides they build great Alms-houses near the place where they intend to be buried and bequeath large Revenues to the same for the relief and maintenance of the Poor OTHERS order their Coffins to be carried into Mosquees where they are placed on the ground cover'd with their Canopy and Turbant with several Lamps continually burning about them After this manner are the Graves of all their Emperors most commonly adorned and particularly that of Mahumet himself at Medina True it is that his Coffin has no Alcorans fastned to it because he being lookt upon as their Prophet they don't think it necessary to pray for his Soul since it is he that saves others though those Books are always affixed to all other Tombs for the convenience of them that come to pray there and some of these are continually attended by people who out of the said Books read prayers by turns both day and night for which they are paid out of a large revenue the deceased Prince has appointed for that purpose to the end the Prayers for the Rest of his Soul might never cease AS to the common sort holes are digg'd for them in their publick Burying-places wherein they being laid down and cover'd over with Earth two small Pillars or two pieces of Wood are erected upon their Graves the one being set at their feet and the other at their head But there are some who being desirous to distinguish themselves from others and able to be at some cost have Tombs made for them much after the fashion of Altars in the said publick places AND so great is the Veneration they have not only for their own Sepulchres but those also of all other Nations that the robbing or violating of any of them is held amongst them the highest Crime a man can commit As we may plainly see in Thevet's Cosmography who tells us that one of their Ottomans called Selim in his Expedition against Egypt from whence he return'd Victorious and Master of the whole Country caus'd several of
his own Souldiers to be severely punished in Syria only for having open'd the Grave of a Jewish Physician upon the hopes of finding some treasure there fourteen of which were hang'd three empaled and the rest put to death by divers Torments BESIDES the same Emperor seeing many Graves of the Christian Princes in Jerusalem who under Godfrey of Bouillon did recover the Holy Land from the hands of the Turks and who had been the cause of so great defeats they had received in several bloudy Battels did nevertheless under great penalties prohibit the touching or disturbing of them For said he all Graves even those of our Enemies are esteemed in our Religion as Sacred things In short they are so tender and nice in this Point that they will not suffer any body on horseback to ride through their Church-yards Which was the reason why Monsieur de Villamonté hardly escaped being ston'd to death in the same City because he had rid through a Place where some poor Turks were formerly Buried the Place being still accounted Sacred by them though there was not the least sign of any Grave there MOREOVER they account it one of the greatest misfortunes that can possibly befal them to be depriv'd of Burial Thus we read that that famous General Zubienzar who continued the siege of Constantinople for seven years together being shot with an Arrow and finding himself ready to give up the Ghost charged his Souldiers couragiously to continue the Attaque till they had laid his Body so deep in the ground that his Foes might not be able to discover and find out the place where he was Buried And it was upon the same account that Solyman dying in the territories of the Christians into which he was advanced with a potent Army designing to spoil and make havock of them strictly commanded his Captains to convey his Body into his own Dominions that the Christians might not offer any injury to his Tomb. BUT what does fill me with greater wonder is the respect which one of their Princes Noradine by Name had for the Sepulchre of Baudouin the Third King of Jerusalem for he being dead at Beryte and his Body with great pomp carried from thence to the Burying place of his Ancestors some advised him to take that opportunity to invade the Christian Countries and avenge himself of the many affronts he had receiv'd from them But so far was he from acquiescing in their advice which seem'd very promising and advantageous that he reproached them with the little respect and consideration they had for the Dead adding that for his part he had rather lose the Empire of the World than disturb the Grave of any one whatsoever CHAP. VI. Funerals of the Chineses NEVER were any People in the World so nice and scrupulous in this Matter as the Chineses For they not only every one of them keep in their houses a Book containing all the Rites and Ceremonies used at their Burials which they read over as oft as any one is Dead to the end they may the more exactly pay every the least punctilio of Duty and Honour due to the Deceased and rather love to exceed what is prescribed in the said Ceremonial than to omit any the least circumstance therein set down But though their Mourning be very long and tedious it lasting no less than three years and very troublesome as tying them to the strict observation of most severe Laws yet none amongst them has to this day ever complain'd of their rigour but on the contrary they think themselves most happy if they can but return their Parents an acknowledgment suitable to the pains they have taken for them in their infancy in bewailing them the space of three whole years because during the same term of time they took so much care of their education in their most tender and helpless years They cut off part of their Hair and dress themselves in a course linnen-cloth they are never seen at publick Sports and solemn Rejoycings they cease from prosecuting their Adversaries and suing for Judgment against them and if they be Magistrates they lay down their Office during the whole time of their Mourning and he would be esteem'd a most base and infamous person who should omit the least of these circumstances Besides Children are not permitted to marry before they are out of Mourning and if any during this time contract a marriage in private and it come to the Justice's knowledge besides the fine laid upon them the Marriage is declar'd void Neither is it lawful for those that are married to lie with their Wives there being penalties appointed by the Law against such Women as are found with Child within the foresaid interval In short all manner of rejoycing is during all that time so strictly forbidden that they who ride on horseback are not permitted to use a Collar of Bells wherewith they adorn their Horses though they be so much in fashion there among Travellers that neither rich nor poor do ever ride without them AS for the Fathers mourning for their Children Brothers for Brothers and Nephews for Uncles it does not last so long But the mourning of a Husband for his Wife or Wife for her Husband is as long and tedious as is that forementioned of the Children for their Parents THE first Duty they pay to their Deceased Relation after they have closed his Eyes is to furnish two Tables with all sorts of Meats and the best Wine one whereof they set near the Bed on which the Dead is lying his Kinsmen and Friends discoursing him and inviting him to eat and drink with them as if he were still alive and the other in the Anti-chamber which is no less well deck'd and provided for the entertainment of those that come to condole with them But true it is that these Viands that are equally dainty are eaten in a very different manner Some hours after the Table spread for the Relations of the Deceased is taken away little of the Meat being touch'd because these poor Creatures in the midst of their affliction and at the sight of so sad and doleful an object find more ease and satisfaction in weeping than in eating whereas the other though plentifully and splendidly furnish'd is scarce sufficient for the Guests who for the most part are smell-feasts and good-fellows that repair thither rather to make good cheer and stuff their bellies than to express any sorrow for or share in the affliction of the Family THEY keep the same Feasts also though they be far from their own Country as soon as they are informed of the Death of any of their near Relations Upon the first news they receive of it they cause the Name of the Dead to be written on a board to which they address themselves and speak as if the Body were present and make all the haste they can to recover home in order to acquit themselves in their Duty And in
case it happen that for a long time they receive no news from their Relations abroad insomuch as they have reason to suspect their death if after they have advised with Soothsayers and made all possible enquiries they can't procure their Bodies being Dead then they make an Image of Plaster and pay to it the same Honours which they would have paid to the Corps it self AS soon as these Feasts are over the Bonzes which are their Priests are call'd in to rehearse the usual Prayers which they do in so sad and mournful a tune and withal so extreamly harsh and frightful that one would rather think it to be the howling of Devils than the singing of Priests This done they appoint the day and hour of the Burial after which every body being withdrawn they leave the Corps in the hands of such who are to take care of preparing it in order to its Interment THESE do wash it with sweet waters dress it in his finest Cloaths and put it up in a Coffin with several precious things which are given to the Deceased by his Relations And to the end that neither Devils nor Men should dare meddle with them they also put into the Coffin some horrid and frightful shapes which they say are very sure Guardians and scarecrows against all manner of Robbers How great Riches are consum'd and spent in these Funerals is almost incredible for besides that these Coffins are often of Gold or Silver many Jewels and precious Stones of great value are together enclosed with them NOR do they ever bury their Dead in those Years where the last number is the same with that of the Year of their birth For example if the Party were born in one thousand six hundred and five or fifteen if you will and he happen to dye in the Year one thousand six hundred thirty five forty five or in any of a like denomination they keep the Corps all that Year over being in continual expectation that as his Soul came first into his Body in a Year of that number so may it the same Year return and be re-united again with it And this foolish belief doth so far prevail with them that when ever it happens so they dare not inter the Body but the year after WITH a like ridiculous and vain Opinion do they entertain their fancies concerning the return of the Dead into their Houses once a Year which they imagine comes to pass in the very last Night of the Year and to the end their deceas'd Friends and Relations may without any more ado enter-in as soon as they come they leave their Doors open all that Night In the mean time they make their Beds ready for them and set a Bason full of Water in the Chamber to wash their feet and whatsoever else they may have occasion for Thus with great stilness and silence they expect their coming till Midnight when supposing them arrived they complement them by telling them how glad they are of their Company and thereupon light several Wax-Tapers that are placed on an Altar which they have for that use on which they burn a composition of sweet-scented Drugs with a thousand like Perfumes then they with great reverence bow themselves to them praying them to remember their Children Nephews or other Relations that Year that by their means they may obtain of the Gods health strength and a long and prosperous Life with plenty of worldly Goods Now though this may seem a ridiculous custom yet the neglecting or omitting of the same is reck'ned amongst them a most high and unpardonable crime and of which if any should be guilty they would not fail to lye under a continual apprehension that the Dead would some time or other avenge that impiety and severely punish them for the same BUT to return from this digression we 'l now speak of the end and upshot of their Funeral Ceremonies The day on which the Corps is to be Buried they early in the Morning give publick notice of the Hour when it is to be carried to its Grave to have the greater concourse of People to attend it In the front of all this Procession march Colours and Standards which are followed by Men playing on Instruments some on Drums others on Ho-boys others on Bag-pipes and others on Trumpets after these come up a Company of Dancers who are drest in mighty strange and antick habits like Stage-players leaping and dancing all the way in a very ridiculous manner After this third Company comes another that is no less singular in its kind They are a number of Men armed with several sorts of Weapons some with Symetars others with large Shields and Bucklers and others with Clubs whose massy end is stuck full of Iron-spikes these are seconded by others that carry Fire-arms which they continually discharge and the Priests who come next after them do cry and bawl as loud as ever they can which noise though very great is still encreas'd by the sad and sonorous lamentations both of the Relations and People attending insomuch that if there ever was a mad concert this may well be call'd so besides that this antick mixture of Players Dancers Souldiers Musicians and Mourners makes it the most ridiculous show in the World AS to the Bodies of the Rich they are most commonly carried into the Country every one of them making choice of a place of Burial for himself in his own ground by reason they hope to enjoy their Estates in another life and accordingly take possession of the same by their being Buried there Upon which account it is that when a Grave is once made in any Land or Possession the Kindred of the Dead are from that time forward devested of the liberty to dispose of it to others And as during their Lives they spend much time and money towards the preparing of those Graves which after their Death are yet further inrich'd and embellish'd by their Friends and Relations so are they the most magnificent and stately structures that can ever be seen BESIDES all this the Relations of the Dead do put themselves to other great expences to supply them with goods in the other world In the midst of some publick place they erect vast Buildings whose Fabrick is both curious and costly and having written the Name of the Deceased upon them they burn them to ashes being of that belief that the same pass to the other world and that their departed Friends take possession of them as if they were made over to 'em by a Letter of Attorney IT remains yet that we speak of two sorts of Burials which are in use among them viz. of the meaner sort and of their Kings The former of which are interred in publick Burying-places without much ceremony or expence their belief being that they must be poor in the other World as they have been in this AS for their Kings though they
be interr'd according to the way prescribed by the Religion of the Country yet there are particular Ceremonies observed for them which are not us'd to any other though they be of the highest rank Assoon as they have given up the Ghost they are with a great deal of pomp and splendor laid on a Bed of State placed in the midst of the great Hall of their Palace for besides that the said Bed is made of the most rare and costly wood it is all lin'd and garnished within with cloth of Gold whose edges hang down to the ground Then comes his Successor accompanied with his Brothers if he has any all of them cloathed in Sackcloth and girded with Ropes with a small twisted Cord about their heads who after they have with humble obeisance paid their reverence to the Corps and by their weeping and dejected countenances declar'd how sensibly they are afflicted for the Death of so great and so good a Prince they presently withdraw and cause their Hair to be cut off by one of their chief Mandarins or Courtiers IN this mourning habit they return again the next day to the Palace where having a second time in the same manner as before paid their duty to the Corps they transfer it themselves into a portable house where they lay the Coffin on a Table gilded all over round about which are set several pots of Flowers that together with a great number of Censers and Perfuming-pans exhale a sweet scent all over the place wherein nothing is wanting that may render it every way admirable there not being ought else to be seen but the dazling lustre of Gold Silver and precious Stones intermixed with the light of many thousands of Virgin-wax-Tapers THEN the Funeral procession is appointed in order to the burying of the Corps But before it commenceth the Princes call to them three Persons of the highest Quality in the whole Kingdom whom they chuse to attend the Body to the Grave because they cannot do it themselves and take their Oaths of them that they shall not only discharge their duty therein with all possible Glory and magnificence but withal hide the place so carefully that none but those of the Royal Family may ever come to the knowledge of it Which Custom of concealing the Sepulchres of their Kings is by them observed because they apprehend the immense Treasures they bury with them would otherwise be stoln away THUS having by the solemn Oath of these Commissioners provided against that fear they cause the signal of the procession to be given by the confused noise of a great number of Drums And the Souldiers of the Guard both Musqueteers and Halberdeers to the number of fifteen thousand every one of them clad in a long dark blue Gown with a Cap of the same rank themselves into rows making a lane down to the River where the Corps is to imbark for commonly the Bodies of their Soveraigns are transmitted into remote Countries The ways being thus cleared of people and open for a free passage the Funeral March begins with a Chariot charged with a great Column a-round which the King's Life Age and Virtues with the most remarkable of his Exploits are written in Gold and Silver Letters and on the top of it three Globes of Gold and Silver are set one upon another After this comes another Chariot in a manner all of Gold which carries the imbossed picture of a City Then advances a third that bears the Royal Throne all of Gold and Ivory whereon is laid the Crown of the late King But all these Machines though marvellous rich and costly are not to be compar'd with that Mausoleum or portable House in which the Corps is laid Immediately before which advances a great number of Musicians who without singing play in concert to the sighs and lamentations of the Assembly on either side of it the Eunuchs and other chief Officers of the Crown do attend and the new King with the Princes his Brothers dressed as you have heard before walk after bare-footed having false Hair on their heads and counterfeit white Beards with a Pilgrims Staff in their hand as if they intended to signifie by this poor equipage that in losing their King they had lost all The Queens and other Ladies of the Court to the number of eight or nine hundred clad all in White with Vails of the same colour accompany them together with more than a thousand Mandarins wh have a course linnen-cloth carelesly wrapt about their body much like a hair-cloth or else are apparel'd with a covering made of barks or leaves of Trees And last of all four thousand Armed men bring up the rear of this great and pompous Procession AS soon as the Body arrives at the River it is saluted with the discharging of the Guns from three Gallies which attend there on purpose and with great volleys of shot from the band of Musqueteers The chief of which called the Galley Royal that is appointed to carry the Corps besides that a great part of it is covered with hangings of Cloth of Gold has all its Rowing-benches decked with the most rich Persian Carpets and the Rowers in the most splendid garb imaginable of divers colours As for the other two whereof the one carries the City and the other the Mausoleum they are both gilt all over without and within from the Stern to the Prow AS soon as these Gallies are put off from shore the King and all his Court vying to out-do one another in demonstrations of the affliction they conceive for losing so great and so good a Master follow them with their Eyes as far as they can with all possible expressions of 〈◊〉 excessive sorrow and when they are got out of sight they return to the Palace from whence the King issues out his Proclamation for the solemnizing of a general Mourning throughout the Kingdom which Mourning lasts three whole Years during which time no body dares either dance sing or play upon any Instrument SOME time after the King to discharge himself of the obligation of a Present he ows his Predecessor causes the representation of a whole Kingdom or of an Army encamped under their Tents or of a large City only to be erected in the midst of some large place and after having spent abundance of riches about the building and furnishing of these Machines they are by his order set on fire to the end his Father or Predecessor may receive and enjoy them in the other World AND what is yet more ridiculous in this ceremony is that before he thus foolishly cause the aforesaid Machines to be set on fire he formally buys the same of some persons that are on purpose appointed to be within them The particular circumstances of which take as follows The King advanceth to the door and by his order a Musician delivers himself with a tunable singing voice to this purpose There was some time ago a most rich wise and
abandon themselves to sorrow but when Death has cut off all these their pleasing hopes and expectations But that which makes others give the reins to tears and lamentations doth afford to these Islanders matter of joy and solace who are as merry and chearful at the Death of any of their Friends as they were sad and afflicted during his sickness And indeed they commonly exceed in both these for as they with an extraordinary dejected countenance and grief of heart lament him when sick sparing neither care nor charge to endeavour his recovery when in danger of losing his life so on the other side when he hath lost it they frame to themselves a thousand pleasing and flattering Ideas to his advantage omitting nothing that may express their joy and comfort on that occasion IF the sick Party be a Person of great Quality if he possess Lands and be invested with Offices all his Domesticks and Vassals or Tenants are bound to put themselves in Mourning to keep long Fasts and tedious abstinences and a thousand other expressions of sorrow to declare the share they take in his misery and how sensibly they are afflicted for his sickness His Relations also would be look'd upon as infamous and unworthy Persons should they during the whole time of his illness take any the least pleasure or diversion they being by the custom of the Country oblig'd to abstain from all manner of dainties and some of 'em lye all that time upon the bare ground whilst others are watching with and attending upon him and to the end that nothing may divert them from this duty of waiting upon the sick they cast off the care of all their other affairs WHEN the sick Person is of an ordinary condition or of the common sort of People his Shop is presently shut up so as nothing of his Trade is driven all that while and his whole Family are so sad and comfortless that they even neglect themselves in their necessary repasts They are always in tears and wander up and down the Streets enquiring for Remedies that may give him some ease They aggravate his sickness to those of his acquaintance they meet with in their way They curse a thousand times the Malady which is the cause of his sufferings they accuse it of injustice and endeavour to prove from the actions of his life that the never deserved to be so severely handled For they fancy all Diseases are invisible Officers of a Soveraign Judge whom they adore Upon which account they very often present Petitions against them in the Temples consecrated to that Supreme Judge Which Petitions are generally answered with good success and such as gives them all the satisfaction imaginable For if the sick recover they doubt not but that the said Officer hath been turn'd out of his Place since he can no more exercise his cruelties by sickness upon their Friend and if he dye as they are perswaded that he is presently receiv'd into the rank and number of the Gods they comfort themselves in hopes that he will highly revenge himself upon that petty fellow who has been so bold to make him suffer unjustly whilest he was in this life And therefore as soon as their Friend hath closed his Eyes their grief is at an end and kneeling down they adore him HAVING performed this Ceremony they go and publish the good news of his Death throughout the City and the Bonzes which are their Priests upholding them in these errors do from that hour dispose themselves to come and take the Corps away and with great pomp carry it to their Burying-places the Priests at their own charges providing a great number of Torch-lights with a decent Coffin for to lay the dead Body in and dressing themselves in their best and richest Ornaments the better to grace the Solemnity For all which trouble and cost they desire no reward from the Relations of the Deceased because they would have the People believe that there is not a dead Body but is to them an holy Relick and for which they stand highly oblig'd to the Family THE Inhabitants of the Maldives being Mahometans do observe the Law of Mahumet but by reason their Country is far remote from Persia and Turky which are the two most civiliz'd Nations of that Sect it happens that not having the opportunity of being furnished with able Men who might fully instruct them in the Doctrine contain'd in the Alcoran they mix with it several inventions and particular Ceremonies of their own But I shall here only mention such of them as relate to Funerals these alone being the subject of my present Discourse THEY have in every one of their Cities publick Officers that are appointed to bury the Dead viz. six Men and six Women who meddle with none but those of their own Sex Which Office they buy of the King and at their enterance upon it they give besides what it cost them a Sum of Money to be distributed among their Brethren or Fellow-Officers Their Duty consisteth in washing the Body very well and laying it up in a Coffin made of some sweet-scented Wood with the usual Circumstances which are First the laying his right Hand upon his Ear and his left all along his Thigh to intimate that if he has contracted any sin by his birth he has made it his business to purge and repent himself of it by listning to the Voice and observing the Commandments of God Secondly the preparing a Cotton-bed for him which represents the sweet and pleasant rest that he is to enjoy in the other World Thirdly the sowing him to this Bed by means of a strong double Linnen-cloth wrapt about him to signifie that the Rest he is gone to take possession of cannot be shaken and that nothing thenceforth can disturb or interrupt it Lastly the making him lean on his right side to shew that he has not deserved to enter into this Rest upon any other account but because he has supported all his actions with justice and equity and has never taken pleasure in any unjust thing THEY esteem this duty of burying the Dead of so great importance that it is the first thing they take care of as soon as they are come to an Age in which they are capable of minding their own affairs Wherefore when they are become their own Masters and from under the tuition of their Fathers either by being sent forth to shift for themselves or by Marriage their first business is to look out a place where they intend to be Buried and the next to prepare a Stone on which their Epitaph containing a short account of their Life is to be engraven as likewise to lay up in some Trunk or Chest the Garments and other necessaries for their Funerals together with such a summ of money as they think fitting to allow for the charges thereof which money is by them esteemed so sacred that they dare not
the Grave and finding it so they cover it again and tread down the place with their feet sighing and sobbing in a most sad manner When all this is by them performed they go and make themselves merry with feasting and drinking even to excess that they may drown their sorrow and drive it from their hearts THE Inhabitans of the Fortunate Islands as likewise those of Comagra had no such pity for their Deceased friends for the Canarians who inhabited the former were so far from weeping that they did nothing else but sing dance and divert themselves at the Interment of their Dead and the latter clothed them with their richest wearing Apparel and congratulated them upon the account of the happiness that was fallen to their lot in being freed from all the miseries of this life AS for the people of Candia though they did not use any great Ceremonies at the Burial of their Dead yet was that last duty look'd upon by them as a thing so important and Sacred that those that were appointed to make the Graves for the Dead and to lay them therein enjoy'd great Priviledges amongst them and were by every one reverenced and honour'd as much as the Priests themselves above whom they had this advantage That whereas the Candians did commonly rob one another without being punished for it not sparing even those that were consecrated to the service of the Gods yet would they never meddle with any thing belonging to the publick Funeral Officers for fear they should in revenge have let them want a Grave after their Death in case they had done them any wrong which they dreaded as the greatest of all misfortunes that could possibly befal them insomuch that it was good being a Sexton amongst them because that employment which generally with others is very abject and contemptible was the most priviledged and respected in that Country THE Inhabitants of Cyprus did first anoint the Dead with Honey and then pasted them over with Wax by which means they preserved their figure and shape several years together during all which time the corruption of the inward parts did not exhale the least ill scent And last of all having carried them into Caves made in some Rocks and set them up there as so many Statues their Relations from time to time came and visited them discoursing with them of things that pass'd in their Family or other occurring matters An ancient Author makes this observation upon the forementioned Ceremony viz. That they Buried their Friends in Honey after their Death as they had given them Gall to taste at their Birth and coming into the World and that because Gall is a very significant symbol of the miseries and afflicting sorrows of this wretched life which is full of bitterness as Honey is an Emblem of the sweet enjoyments and happiness of the other wherein is found an infinite variety of ravishing pleasures and delights IT will not be improper to add something here concerning the Custom of the Inhabitants of Greenland which is the coldest Country in the World that Island lying in the midst of the frozen Sea and because the Ice never thaweth there on that side that lies towards America the Sun being not hot enough to melt it it hath made some to conclude that it was joyned to the Northern part of the West Indies and consequently that it was part of the Continent and no Island Now the Inhabitants of this Country take no other care of their Dead than that they draw them out of their Caves in which they live under ground and expose them naked to the open Air where they soon grow as hard as stones And to the end they might not by being thus left in the open Fields be devoured by Bears or other wild Beasts they shut them up in great Hampers which they hang upon Trees CHAP. IX Funerals of the Tartars THESE People which were formerly call'd Scythians and are still in our days accounted barbarous by reason of their rude savage and wandring way of living having no home or setled dwelling-place as others but herding together in Woods and Fields like Brute-beasts sometimes in one place and sometimes in another according to the variety of Seasons and conveniency of Pasture I say these very People all wild and brutish as they are have notwithstanding excell'd many other Nations in the Piety they have shown and duty they have paid to the Dead I KNOW that some accuse them of cruelty in this matter saying that they either hang the Dead on Trees in the remotest and coldest places to harden them thereby or what is much more horrid devour them after they have fell'd them down with their own Hands though indeed the same Historians do tell us that this their cruelty extends only to Persons of seventy years of age and that they bury all that â—â—re under those Years Yet I do find that anciently the custom of burying the Dead was so universal that nothing was reckon'd more sacred among them And Herodotus informs us that Darius Son of Hystaspes having made an Invasion into their Country with a most puissant Army and seeing that they fled continually from him resolv'd to send one of his Principal Officers to them to know the reason of their cowardly running away and whether they would not at length stop somewhere and stand to a Battle which he had so often fairly proffer'd them To which they returned this answer That they had no Cities nor Lands to defend but that when-ever they should advance so far as their Fathers Graves that then his Master would be aware with what courage and resolution they could fight for securing of any thing that was considerable or dear unto them With which answer as Valerius Maximus adds they for-ever clear'd themselves of that foul blot of monstrous barbarity which was before thought to be so natural to them since a more pious reply could not possibly have been given by the most civilized People in the World Which passage also proves that they were wont to bury their Dead and that their Graves were in remote places far from the commerce and resort of any that were borderers upon them SOME of the most barbarous customes related of them in Histories are the Funeral Ceremonies wherewith they in ancient times honour'd their Kings of which I find two several accounts both equally horrid As soon as any of their Princes was Dead they open'd his Body to take out the entrails which otherwise might have corrupted it and after having wash'd it well they poured melted Wax all over it both within and without Then they fill'd it with Thyme mixt with Chervil Sellery and Anniseeds bruis'd together and after that having sow'd it up again as neatly as possibly they could they set it stark naked upon a Chariot which was to carry it not only through all his own hereditary Provinces
but those also which he had subdued and made tributary When they came to the Frontiers of any Countrey those that had conducted and attended it so far thither returned back and others of that Province receiv'd and took care of it thus conveying it from hand to hand till it had gone round the whole Kingdom Now it was lawful for the Inhabitants of every Province to do what out-rage or injury they pleased to revenge those wrongs which the Prince in his life time had done them So that some cut off his Ears others his Hair others his Nose others struck him on the Forehead others slash'd deep and large gashes in his Arms and others pierced his Hands with Arrows every one insulting on that part which he conceived he had been agriev'd or injur'd by For example those that could never obtain a hearing from him revenged themselves upon his Ears which had always been deaf to them they that were scandaliz'd with his debaucheries and luxury tore off his Hair that was his chief Ornament and after they had shaved him to make him look ugly and ridiculous they made a thousand flouts at him They that dislik'd his too great delicacy and effeminateness slit his Nose for him as supposing that he could never have been such but because he lov'd and delighted too much in Perfumes and pleasant Scents They that were offended at his Government broke his Forehead the place where all his Tyrannical Laws and Ordinances had been hatched Those to whom he had done any violence regarding his Arms as the Instruments of his strength and the Executioners of their miseries did with several blows break the very Bones of them And they who had suffer'd by his covetousness either because of the heavy Taxes and Subsidies he had levied upon them or else because he had not rewarded their services did slit open his hands for having been too griping or close fisted IN the end when all had thus wreked their spleen upon him by punishing him according to their pleasure and the wrong they had receiv'd from him they brought him back to the place where he died and having erected a great Wood-pile they burnt him with one of the most beautiful of his Mistrisses or Concubines together with his Cup-bearer his Cook his Master of Horse and the chief Groom of his Stable with some Horses besides fifty others of his Servants all whose throats they cut whilst his Body was a burning and buried them about the Grave wherein they laid his ashes THE other Solemnity I am to mention is yet more barbarous When generally no complaints were heard of the deceased Soveraign they then took no care to embalm him because there was no need to preserve his Body in order to the taking a progress about the Kingdom In this case I say they erected his Tomb in the midst of a vast Plain and raised it upon great Pieces of Timber to a very considerable height after the manner of a Scaffold This Tomb was nothing else but a very large Bier or Coffin for besides the Body of the King it was to contain all the Officers and others above-mentioned which were flung into it as fast as they were slaughter'd To which they added several Ornaments of the deceased Prince with great store of Vessels of Gold covering the whole with a large Carpet upon which they last of all laid abundance of earth above three foot high AT the Years end they met in great numbers at the said Tomb where they kill'd fifty Pages of the late King ' s with as many Horses both which they stuff'd up with straw after they had unbowell'd them and then they placed these Horses upon several wooden arches as if they had been running a galop and fasten'd the Bodies of the Pages upon them which was in their opinion the most magnificent pomp they could fancy or think of wherewith to honour the memory of their Kings which indeed suited very well with their barbarous manners as more becoming Beasts than Men. AND now we are speaking of such barbarities as these it will not be a-miss to give an hint of several other Nations which have left us very sad and amazing tokens of their cruelty in this behalf though they were of opinion they could no better way express their respects to the Dead Some did provide for them Living Graves causing them either to be devour'd by Beasts or eaten by Men. Others gave them Fiery Sepulchres by consuming them several ways by fire Others Water-Burials by casting them either into the Sea Rivers or Lakes Others made use of Airy Obsequies by hanging them in the Woods or in their own Houses and others Terrestrial ones by letting them lye unburied on the face of the ground CHAP. X. Living Sepulchres WE need not have our recourse to Fables to find out instances of Living Graves or Sepulchres nor with the Poets to advance here the story of Saturns eating his own Children Neither is it necessary to go as far as Caria in search of the famous Arthemisa who being not able sufficiently to express the love she had for the King Mausolus her Husband did not content her self to erect him a most magnificent Tomb after his Death which has been accounted for one of the wonders of the World and from which the stateliest Monuments of all succeeding Ages have derived their name but moreover mingled his very Ashes with her drink There are so many Historians that relate a thousand instances of greater cruelty than these that the truth of them can scarcely be question'd Herodotus Strabo Mela and Solinus tell us of several Nations of Asia that would have thought themselves guilty of the greatest impiety should they have let their Dead corrupt in the Graves and become a repast for worms Wherefore as soon as any one was Dead amongst them they did cut the Body to pieces and mixing it with their usual Meats Mutton Beef or the like they ate it with a singular gust and devotion Yea the nearest relations of the Dead made this a matter of much joy and with a great deal of ceremony invited one another to these Feasts to eat the Body of such a one much in the same manner as we invite our Friends to attend the Funeral of a deceased Friend or Relation In a word to devour the Dead was to pay him their last Duty and the highest mark of the respect and affection they had for him in which they out-vied the Doctrine of Pythagoras that Philosopher maintaining only a Metempsychosis or the transmigration of Souls into other Bodies whereas these put in practice the transmigration of dead Bodies into living ones Horatius tells us in his Poems that the old Irish-men and Britains used this in-humane cruelty only on the Bodies of Strangers but Tertullian assures us that this monstrous piety was universal among and exercised by them upon all sorts of men and as they used neither Interments nor Burnings they
of them having for his so doing particular reasons THEY that cast them into the Sea did it that they might the longer be preserved by the Salt and sharpness of that Water Those that flung them into Rivers would thereby intimate that as by the current of the Water they were carried into the vast Ocean so by the whole course of their lives they had been passing towards Eternity into which they were now at last launched by Death And they who committed them to Lakes which are standing Waters intended thereby to express the rest and repose the Dead meet with in the other World after all the tempests and traverses of this which is nothing else but a boisterous and raging Sea BESIDES those particular reasons they had some that were more general and common The first of which was that seeing the Dead turn to corruption and become very loathsome and filthy they perswaded themselves they could make no better provision against the said noisome putrefaction than by casting them into the water because that washeth and cleanseth every thing Another reason as Clemens Alexandrinus relates it was because the water being accounted a sacred Element they thereby thought to hallow and consecrate the Dead A third was that since according to Thales's opinion who was one of the Seven Wisemen of Greece all things were made and consisted of Water the Bodies of Men were by this means resolved into that first principle from whence they had their beginning And lastly because being for the most part People that inhabited the Sea-Coasts and fed generally upon Fish they conceived it but reasonable that their Bodies should after their death be the food of Fishes as during their life-time they had made them their nourishment AND so sweet and easie did many of them fancy this way of Burial to be and had so much respect for it that not being able to wait for their natural Death when in an orderly way they might be made partakers of it after having made themselves merry by excessive eating and drinking they went and cast themselves of their own accord either into the Sea or some River thereby to antedate their conceited bliss and happiness CHAP. XIII Airy Obsequies IT is a strange thing that the Gallows which by us is lookt upon as the most infamous of punishments should with some People be esteemed so honourable that they give no other Sepulchres to their dead Friends and which amongst others is had in such veneration that they grant this advantage only to their Soveraign Princes and great Lords I KNOW that Woods have been formerly had in great reverence and that they were accounted most Sacred Places not only from the testimony of profane Authors who give this character of them but this truth is also by several Texts of Scripture confirmed to us For we read in Genesis that Abraham planted a Wood in Bersabe where he called upon the Name of the Lord and that Jacob thought he could not give a more decent Grave to Deborah Nurse of his Wife Rebecca than by burying her under an old Oak INDEED this veneration for Woods and Solitary Places is in a manner natural for the Pagans themselves which were led only by the light of Nature have acknowledged this verity and amongst others Virgil speaks of all Woods and Forests as so many Temples In these our Druids erected Altars for their Sacrifices and here also it was all Antiquity believed the Gods made their usual abode For besides the Oreades or Nymphs of the Mountains the Dryades those of the Woods and the Fauns and Satyrs or Gods of the Fields we read that some of them were consecrated to Apollo others to Diana and such like pretended Divinities Whereupon Pausanias tells us that Persons of the highest Quality in ancient times had their Sepulchres in Woods and Plato was of opinion that none but Men of great worth and excellence ought to be interred there Cicero in his Defence of Milo takes the Woods to witness as being Holy places and the usual Coemeteries of great and virtuous Men. BUT if we ought to commend this custom of burying the Dead in the Woods which were formerly accounted very Sacred we must needs abhor the practice of those that profaned and polluted them by making them serve for Gallows and thereby exposing them to the character of the most infamous places imaginable Thus the Inhabitants of Colchos and the Tibarens a People of Scythia made a piece of Religion of it to hang the dead Bodies of their Relations upon Trees for an horror to Spectators and for a prey to the Fowls of Heaven and the ancient Goths and Swedes could think of no better way to shew the veneration they had for their Princes after death than by fixing them to a Gibbet Surely we must suppose these Men worse than Barbarians to fancy that an honour which indeed is the greatest infamy in the World and to esteem that a Religious and Pious duty which indeed is the extremest impiety and undutifulness that can be conceived What honour can a Body be thought to receive by suffering a loathsome corruption in the Air or by being exposed in a shameful nakedness which daily grows more ugly discoloured and frightful or to be tost to and fro and become the sport and may-game of the wavering Winds Certainly it appears to me that even according to the dictates of Nature nothing can be more horrid or inhumane This is the reason why our Laws appoint the same as a Punishment and just reward of the most hainous offenders and notorious Criminals and which makes as great an impression on our minds to deter us from like crimes as to see a Man lose his life by the hands of the Hang-man Neither can I imagine what way these barbarous People have to punish the wicked since they make use of Gallows to honour Persons of worth except one should say that being Barbarians Vice is had in esteem and veneration amongst them as Virtue is with us and that according to their natural brutishness they pay the Duty of Burial only to such who by their wicked actions have made themselves famous amongst them AGAIN what a fine show is it to see a Room hung full of dried Carkasses or Mummies Surely these are rarities that one would think cannot give much satisfaction or delight to those that have them continually in their Eyes It 's true that we preserve some Mummies amongst us which we consider rather as curious Figures than as humane Bodies that ever had life because they are from remotest Countries brought to us who never knew the least thing of the Persons they once were But there are none to be found how cruel soever he may otherwise be that ever went about to make such Mummies of his Friends or Relations in order to keep them in his House and continually have them before his eyes The sole Idea
keep to himself some things he thinks not fit to publish to all that are present which he afterwards whispers in the Ear of the Rabbi under pretence of asking him his advice touching the disposal of his Estate and making of his last Will and Testament WHEN this is done he offers publick satisfaction for all the injuries by him done or scandals occasioned either by his debaucheries violence or any private grudge or enmity begging pardon of all those whom he has offended and protesting that he likewise heartily pardons them who have done or intended him any wrong As for what concerns the satisfaction he is to make to GOD he offers him no other but that of his own Death as supposing the same will sufficiently expiate all his Sins Wherein he perhaps does not mistake though he interpret it in another sence for besides that temporal Death which is generally allotted to all Men for a punishment of their Sins he is in great danger to suffer an eternal one as a reward of his obstinacy and unbelief SOME after they have given this satisfaction desire the publick Prayers of the Synagogue and send as much money as they think fit to be distributed to the Poor There are others who besides these publick Prayers have their Name changed as a mark of their entire and absolute Conversion so that when they are pray'd for their former Name is not mentioned but that which they have assumed during their Death-bed-penance For example the Synagogue applying themselves to God on behalf of the Sick speak thus O Lord we beseech thee to have mercy on such a one he hath changed the Name he went by when he offended against thy Laws and is now called N. N. Do not therefore look upon him as an object of thy wrath for if thou hadst resolved to punish him as such now thou must not since he by this other Name he has assumed is become another man Whereupon we do hope that thou wilt hereafter consider him as a new Creature and as a Babe that is but newly born IN short if the sick person be in his Fathers house he craves his Blessing and if he himself is a Father of a Family he calls his Children and Domesticks unto him to Bless them THEN from that time forwards they dare never leave him alone because they perswade themselves that the Angel of Death which is in his Chamber would offer violence to him were there none present to prevent it Neither can they for all this so wholly oppose and hinder that evil Spirit but that he does him a great deal of mischief for as they tell us he with a naked Sword in his hand looks so frightful and terrible that the Sick is thereby much discomposed At this Sword hang three drops all of them very fatal to the Decumbent The first that falls on him gives him his Death the second changes his colour making him pale wan and gastly And the last rots and turns him to corruption so that he becomes noisom and stinking UPON his giving up of the Ghost all that are present do by rending their cloaths and crying as loud as ever they can express the greatest sorrow imaginable and immediately after they fling all the water they have then in the house out of the windows as being of opinion that this malignant Angel has wash'd his Sword in it wherewithal he killed him And all the neighbourhood under a like apprehension do the same Neither is there need of any other notice to make known to the rest of the Town or City that there is some body Dead in that part of it for this abundance of water poured forth on a sudden in the streets makes near as much noise as the ringing of our Bells BESIDES they have another Opinion concerning this Angel which is no less ridiculous They say that some of their most zealous Doctors not being able to endure that this Angel should so cruelly torment and afflict the People for they believe he was formerly much worse than he is now did by their continual prayers so far prevail with God that he deliver'd him into their hands whereupon they having most straightly bound him put out his left eye insomuch that being now half-blind he can no more do them so much harm as formerly NOW to prepare the Corps in order to its Burial they fetch fresh water the cleanest they can get which they boil with Camomil dry'd Roses and such like odoriferous and sweet-scented Herbs and Flowers wherein they wash it very carefully thereby to intimate that Death has not only purged him from all his filthiness but made him of a good and pleasant savour with God THIS done they apparel him in a white Tunick to signifie the innocence where with he now presents himself before the Tribunal of the Soveraign Judge They anoint his face with the yolk of an Egg dissolv'd and mixt with Wine thereby to shew that he shall not only taste of the joys and comforts of the other Life which are enclos'd in Gods bosom as the yolk of an Egg is in its shell but shall be made drunk therewith as not being able to be satisfied and continually drink the same in great draughts till he has by vomiting besmeared himself all over Then they put a Vail over his face thereby to signifie that since he is pass'd into the other World he is no more concerned to regard any thing in this They likewise cover his head with his Talled or short Cloak of Ceremony being in hopes that as it hath been subservient to him in this Life on every Holy-day to say his Prayers in the Synagogue so will it likewise serve him still in Heaven during the long Sabbath of Eternity and that he after having adorned it with the ornaments of the Blessed shall over and above crown the same with Glory Out of this Cloak they pull several Threads wherewith they tye his right Thumb bending and bowing it so as it may in some sort express the Name of God in the Hebrew Tongue they making no question but that with this Mark he is secure from all the assaults of the Devil who whilst he shall thus hold his hand can never drag him into Hell where this Holy Name is not owned or acknowledged and therefore it is that to tye this knot they make use only of those Threads which are taken from that sacred Cloak because they don't believe there can be any other strong enough for that purpose Last of all they lay him in a Coffin with two clean Sheets whereof the one is put under and the other over him making his head to rest upon a great stone or on a Bag filled with Earth To intimate by this hard Pillow the steadiness of that rest he shall enjoy in the other Life and by the cleanness of the sheets he lies on and is covered
Pagans with that gross blindness into which they wilfully plung'd themselves by placing them amongst the number of the Gods whom they had by experience known to be but Men having seen them as well as others obnoxious to Death which is the greatest defect of humane Nature and therefore most contrary to Divinity AND me-thinks the Poet Prudentius treats them very favourably when laughing at the plurality and vanity of their Gods he says that there were as many Temples at Rome as Sepulchres built in honour of their Heroes For it is certain that this Superstition was universal amongst them they being of opinion that Death indifferently consecrated all manner of Persons and was thought sufficient to entitle them to Divine Worship And therefore on this occasion the highest Personages forgot their State and Grandeur and humbled themselves to the meanest Service at the Funeral of those whom they had in their life time look'd upon with contempt insomuch as even Princes honoured their Subjects as soon as they were by Death hallowed and deified and Generals of Armies the meanest of their Souldiers TRAJAN himself who hath always past for one of the greatest and wisest Emperours that Rome ever had was not altogether free from this error For we read in the Historian Dion that he built Altars to the Souldiers who had served him in that perillous and desperate War which he wag'd against Decebalus King of the Dacians and were kill'd in the Field AND what surprises me more is that wise and learned Men have not been able to keep themselves from being taken with this Superstition and not only with the multitude followed but by their Writings authorized the same Labeo tells us with his usual gravity as if he were pronouncing the Decrees and Acts of the Senate That all Souls universally are deified from the moment they are separated from their Bodies AND the Platonists make no other difference between these so common Divinities than that the one do still continue to be wicked after their death as they were in their life-time and that the others on the contrary are always good asserting that those who have led an ungodly life are no sooner dead but they are turn'd to Hob-goblins Spectres and Ghosts that haunt Houses and Church-Yards as they who have liv'd well do become Tutelar and Family-Gods IN short this Opinion was of old so universally receiv'd that there was not a Family but had their own Gods for every one honoured in particular all those of his own Blood that were dead LACTANTIVS who lived in those days informs us that they made Images of them which they carefully kept in their Houses and the better to render them venerable they clothed them in the same Habits wherewith the other Gods whom they adored in their Temples were adorned dressing all the Statues of their deceased Women in the Habiliments of Goddesses and those of Men after the manner of the Gods BUT lest we should think that Lactantius being a Christian does herein impose upon us to make us the more decry and abhor their Religion we may with little pains find the like instances in their own Authors The Poet Statius in the description he makes of the Funeral Honours which Abscancius paid to his Wife Priscilla does not omit to mention that he extended them to an Apotheosis or Consecration and denied her nothing of that veneration which was given to the greatest Goddesses Apulcius says no less of Charite her Mourning for the death of her Husband Leopolemus for having apparelled him like Bacchus she made no difficulty to pay him the same honors that went due to that God AND indeed from what they tell us themselves I find that they expressed no less reverence to them whom they had soon die than to those they believed Immortals and were worshipped publickly For besides Sacrifices they instituted Games and Solemn Festivals in honor of them yea which is more and the greatest mark of Worship that can be express'd they swore by their Ashes CICERO in his second Book of Laws says that these Games Solemnities and Sacrifices were authorized by a practice of time out of mind it having never been questioned but that all Persons as soon as they were departed this Life were admitted into the Rank and Number of the Gods To which he adds that consonant to this pious Custom he behaved himself at the Death of his Daughter AS for Oaths which are Sacred Protestations and affirmations of any thing wherein the Immortal Gods are call'd to Witness we find nothing more frequent among Profane Authors than their Swearing by the Ashes of their Parents and other near Relations This we read in Ovid that Briseis confirming something by Oath to Achilles takes the Souls of her three deceased Brothers whom she consider'd as so many Gods to witness of the truth of what she averr'd to him Hermione in the same Poet swears to Orestes by the Bones of her Father Propertius does the like to Cynthia by those of his Parents Claudian assures us that there is nothing so decent and becoming a Man nor so commendable as to swear by the Ashes of his Parents And Seneca the Rhetorician introducing a young Man whom his Unkle had disinherited because he took care to supply his Father's wants makes him deliver himself in these words How could I see him starve for hunger by whose Ashes I must swear one day FINIS Mens cujusque is est Quisque * Eccl. 7. 4. * Deuter. 32. 29. ‖ Eccl. 9. 10 * Diod. lib. 2. Hist Officers employ'd by the Egyptians at their Funerals * Mela l. 1. ch 9. The manner of their Burying and Embalming Their common Sepulchres * Lucian de luctu Their mourning and lamentations for the common sort ‖ Sixt. Empyric l. 3. For their Kings Publick Examination of the Lives of their Princes after their Death Royal Sepulchres * Bellon Sing Observat l. 2. Their Figure and vast Dimensions The Sepulchre of a young Princess * Herodot l. 2. hist Three sorts of Burials Burying and burning of the Dead in use among the Grecians * Thucyd. l. 1. Divers Examples of Burials Funeral Elogies and common Place of Souldiers Burial * Demosth cont Eubulid ‖ Plut. in Solon Senec in Oedip. Act. 1. Place of Burial for such who died on their beds Priviledge of Heroes Laws that excluded Spend-thrifts from the Burying-place of their Fathers * Gruther Kirckman Guichard Laws that directed the manner of Burials and laying of the Corps Their Mourning the manner of burying their Dead and attending at Funerals very various according to the different Countries of Greece * Thucyd. l. 1. The Duty of Burying inviolable amongst them Example of Wood-piles or burning of the Dead * Homer Iliad Burying and Burning of the Dead us'd amongst the Romans * Herodot Dion Herod ‖ Liv. l. 12. * Varro L. 4. de Lin. Lat. Ceremonies observed at their Departure
XV. The Funeral Rites of the Ancient Jews 180 XVI Modern Jews 198 XVII Schismaticks 234 XVIII Christians 243 XIX A Discourse concerning the Right of Burial and Laws on that behalf 271 THE FUNERAL RITES AND CEREMONIES OF ALL NATIONS CHAP. I. Funerals of the Egyptians I DESIGNING to treat of the Funeral Rites of all Nations shall begin with those of the Egyptians because that People has always been acknowledged for the most ancient and from whom Laws Arts Sciences and Ceremonies were first deriv'd to other Countries Assoon as any one was dead amongst them the Funeral Officers which were three viz. the Clerk the Anatomist or Dissector and the Embalmer presented themselves to the Kinsmen and Relations of the Departed and after they had agreed upon the price for according to the expence they were willing to be at they diversly treated the Corps the Clerk set down upon a paper or marked on the Body it self the Parts that were to be opened viz. the Flanks on the left side Then the Anatomist made the incision and forthwith ran away because the standers-by did most commonly fling stones at him as abhorring to see him exercise this seeming cruelty upon their Friend or Relation At last the Embalmer drew forth all the Intrails but the Heart and Kidneys and after he had washt the Body very well he inwardly anointed it with a composition of all sorts of sweet-scented drugs and spices except Frankincense because that was by them consecrated to the Gods and most commonly the chief ingredients of this ointment were Myrrh and Cassia This done he with an Iron-hook pull'd out all the brains through the Nostrils and fill'd up the void space with Aromatical drugs AS for the remaining Duties they were perform'd by the kinsmen of the Deceased who assoon as these Publick Officers had done their part and withdrawn themselves took the Corps and laid it in Salt where they let it abide for the space of seventy days at the end of which they washed it very carefully and then neatly sow'd up again the incision which the Anatomist had made afterwards they anointed it outwardly all over with a certain Gum wrapt it in swathing-bands of very fine linnen which by reason of the foresaid glutinous ointment stuck close to the body and so they shut it up in carved and painted wooden frames which were made for that purpose NOW these Corpses thus ordered and embalmed which we call Mummies some kept in their houses others shut them up in some Repositories under ground made in the fashion of little vaulted rooms into which the descent was through a round or square hole like unto that of a Well over which they erected a large stone in manner of a pillar loaded it with many garlands and embraced it a thousand times giving the Deceased their last Adieus I HAD almost forgot to mention that in carrying the Body to the grave both men and women made very horrid lamentations and outcries tearing their cloaths and uncovering their breasts which they bruised with many reiterated strokes But these bewailings were far more extraordinary upon the Death of any of their Kings the mourning continuing no less than seventy two days during which time all manner of rejoycings and festivals were forbidden they all bedawbed their faces with mire and dirt walked in troops together along the streets without any thing but a linnen-cloth wrapt about them mixing the Name of their deceased Prince with their sighs and out-cries They abstained from wine and delicate meats deny'd themselves the use of baths and perfumes they did not so much as make their beds nor accompany with their Wives and express'd all the signs of an extraordinary affliction BUT it is to be observ'd that before they paid him these Funeral Obsequies they caus'd all his actions to be very narrowly scann'd and examin'd by the Judges and that in the presence of the People and in case their doings were adjudged bad and unaccountable they deprived him of Burial which they never granted their Prince in the manner as before mentioned but when by a general consent his Government and Conduct were approved of as good For then they erected a sumptuous Monument for him or laid him in that which he had prepared for himself whilst yet alive upon which monumental Structure they lavish'd a prodigious treasure as the remains of their Pyramids do abundantly testifie which at this day are matter of astonishment to all that behold them and were not without great reason by Antiquity reckon'd amongst the Wonders of the World INDEED they were such Buildings as were never elsewhere to be found Neither is it at all likely that any King at this day could go to the charge of them since besides three hundred and seven thousand men who for the space of twenty years were employed in building one of them and eighteen hundred Talents spent only in Turnips and Onions the invention of those Engines whereby they hoisted up so vast stones to such an incredible and prodigious height is quite lost MOST of these Mausoleums or costly and magnificent Structures are made in the fashion of Pyramids and are no less admirable without than within There is one of them that is mounted by two hundred and eight steps and is six hundred and fourscore and two foot broad and six hundred and twenty foot high In a word it is so high that though the top of it be sixteen foot square yet it does shew to those that are beneath as sharp as the point of a needle The entrance into it is through a little door three foot and six inches high and three foot and three inches broad Next you advance through a passage of the same dimensions where first you meet with a descent of sixty steps and after that again an ascent of about an hundred at the end of which you enter into a little Gallery and through that into a Hall in the midst of which stands the Tomb all of one piece and of a stone as fair to look upon and as hard as Porphyre the whole Hall being lined with the same These things might seem incredible were they not confirm'd by all them that have travelled into those Parts The Inhabitants of that Country call these huge Buildings Pharaoh's Mountains by reason of their prodigious height being no less wonderful for the immenseness of their Bulk than for the richness of the Matter of which they are made HERODOTVS tells us that one of their Kings Micerin by name caus'd a Tomb to be made for his Daughter which was no less astonishing than the foregoing He having no children but her and seeing himself by her death deprived of Heirs spared nothing which might express how sensibly he was touched with this loss and endeavoured to immortalize her memory by the most superb and sumptuous structure he could possibly devise Instead therefore of a Monument he order'd a Palace to